‘RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars’: The 5 Biggest Shockers from the Season Premiere

Kitty girls and squirrel friends across the world, the time has finally come. The Olympics of drag is back with the debut of RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars 3 and we’re already gagging over the super-sized season premiere.

With so much talent (and so much shade) to unpack from Episode 1, FANDOM breaks down the five biggest moments below.

The 10th Queen

Y’all wanted a twist? From the moment that the cast of All Stars 3 was revealed, everyone was trying to guess who the mystery 10th contestant would be. And as was heavily rumored online, it ended up being Season 1 winner Bebe Zahara Benet. (Side note: Children, please stop trying to ruin this for everyone by going on Reddit and spreading the spoilers across social media. Thanks!)

While it seems unfair to let a queen who already has a crown return to the race, RuPaul made some good points about her decision to bring the Cameroon queen back. For starters, she had to deal with that Season 1 filter. (Did we even know what she actually looked like before tonight?) Also, her prize package was only $20,000, a small chunk of change compared to the current $100,000 prize. But most importantly, she’s from what’s been dubbed the “lost season” and most Drag Race fans are not familiar with her. But is she going to risk her legacy by competing again? Or is it worth it to actually start touring the world and making money off the show? (We’re going to go with the latter.) Either way, it will be fun to see what she brings to the competition.

The Reading Challenge

Nothing says All Stars like having a reading mini-challenge in the first 20 minutes of the premiere and these girls were not afraid to throw a little shade. Thorgy’s jokes were mostly just bitter comments about Season 8 as opposed to reads and it was slightly awkward. Milk had one of the best lines with “Shangela. I always thought her name was Angela and people were telling her to shut up.” But ultimately it was BenDeLaCreme, Miss Congeniality herself, who won with the best reads of the evening.

Talking Strategy

When DeLa asked Morgan McMichaels what she thought about the elimination format, the Season 2 queen said she plans on sending the strongest competitors home. The other girls looked shocked and Trixie even called it career suicide, but I was shouting Halleloo! Let’s see the ladies actually play the game — and serve some drama to boot.

Morgan reminded the queens that everyone there is a fan favorite except for her so she has nothing to lose. Which I thought was a solid point until it turned out she immediately had the entire season to lose, but more on that later.

The Variety Show

I wondered what queens who don’t have special talents like playing the violin or singing were going to do other than lip sync for the talent show and it turned out the answer was nothing. Most queens indeed lip-synced for their performances, but if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. They all came to slay. Almost.

Shangela and DeLa’s performances were both perfect representations of who they are as queens, while Bebe shook the crowd with her Lion King realness. Thorgy and Kennedy Davenport used their talents, the violin and dancing respectively, to impress the judges. Milk’s performance — a human paper doll routine — was full of bored faces from the other contestants but it was hard to tell if it was bad because the audience was cheering so loudly for her.

Trixie is a comedy queen, so the fact that she also has this country music talent is an important reminder of how well-rounded she is and why she’s a definite frontrunner for the crown.

Aja turned. It. Out. Vogueing while squatting and kicking? As someone who had to do this type of Russian squat dance for a high school production of Fiddler on the Roof, I’m here to tell you it is no easy feat. Frankly, I’m glad she had one of the top performances of the night because fans and the other contestants were throwing tons of shade her way at the start, but I always felt she had way more to show. Plus, she likes to keep it real and I can’t help it, I live for the drama.

Chi Chi DeVayne showed off her dancing skills, but unfortunately, she did it in a shake-and-go wig and jazz slippers. Morgan’s routine seemed perfectly fine, but those reaction shots from Ru and the other queens were hard to watch. I’ve seen Morgan perform live and she is by far one of the best in the biz, so this was unfortunate. When they were named the bottom two, I suddenly remembered how much I didn’t want to see anyone go home.

The Elimination

When the top two (BenDeLaCreme and Aja) and the bottom two (Chi Chi and Morgan) were revealed, I instantly remembered how much I love this All Stars elimination format. It adds so much drama!

After an incredible first lip sync for your legacy to Nicki Minaj’s “Anaconda,” it was DeLa who ultimately won the first challenge, which also means she won the chance to eliminate the first queen of the season. Based on last year’s attempts at sending a queen home based on the judge’s critiques, it looked like Chi Chi was about to sashay away. But in a twist, DeLa chose Morgan due to the Season 2 queen’s plan to send home her biggest competition. But, um, that doesn’t make much sense. To prove the point that the queens all agreed to play a certain way (a conversation that never took place, by the way) she picked Morgan. But if she had actually wanted to play “fair” based on judge’s critiques, then it would have been Chi Chi. So really, wasn’t DeLa just stealing Morgan’s tactic of picking the biggest threat to her, as she thought Morgan would end up sending her home later in the season? The shade of it all!

Well, there you have it. A sensational start to All Stars 3. Stay tuned to FANDOM all season long for all the tea on this series full of Drag Race royalty. Byeeeeeee.